Tobacco-stemming machine.



W. H. ALLEN.

TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 21. 1914.

1 938 ,07'1. Patented Aug. 28, 1917.

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. W. H. ALLEN.

TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED JULY 21. I914.

WMM. l, v 4 0911 W. H. ALLEN.

TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINE.

APPLICATION man JULY 21, 1914.

Patented Aug. 28, 1917.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

W..H. ALLEN. TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINE. I APPLICATION FILED JULYZI. I914.

LQ38,077. I Patented Aug. 28, 1917.

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w. H. ALL EN. TOBACCO STEIVHVHNG MACHlNE.

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APPLICATiON FILED 3ULY21. I914.

W. H. ALLEN.

TOBACCO STEMMING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED JULY 21, 1914.

1 38,077, Patented Aug. 28 1917.

6 SHEETS SHEET 6.

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WILLIAM H. ALLEN, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO PLANTERS STEMMING COMPANY, OF "WILMINGTON, DELAWARE, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

TOBACCO-STEMMING MACHINE.

Application filed July 21, 1914.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. ALLEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in 'lobacco-Stemming Machines, of which the following is a speciiication.

My invention relates to tobacco-stemming machines of a wellknown general type and consists in certain new and useful improvements to be hereinafter described.

One of the principal improvements consists in the means for conveying and feeding the leaves into the path of the stem gripper bars, (hereinafter called grippers whereby the capacity of the machine is greatly increased.

Another improvement consists in the arrangement of the carding or stemming rollers, (hereinafter called carding rollers and their combs, in relation to the wiper or co1nb-cleare1.', (hereinafter called combclearer), and in the construction and operation of the latter.

Another improvement consists in the means employed for separating the carding rollers to allow the grippers to pass between the same.

Still another improvement consists in the construction of the carding rollers themselves.

The machine is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure l is a side elevation, Fig. 2 a plan and Fig. 3 an end view of the machine as a whole.

Fig. 41 is a side view and Fig. 5 a plan of the roller separating mechanism.

Figs. 6, 7 and 8 are side views, partly in section of several forms of my improved construction of carding roller, and Figs. 9, 10 and 11 are end views of the same.

Fig. 12 is a side vicw'of the gripper chains and part of the improved feeding mechanism, and Fig. 13 is a partial end view of the same. i

Figs. 14, 15 and 16 illustrate the improved comb-clearer in side view, end view and sec tional side view, respectively, and Fig. 17 is a plan of a modification of the feeding mechanism.

The frame indicated as a wholeby reference numeral 1, and consists of the usual members to support the various parts, the

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 28, 1917.

Serial No. 852,194.

only ones necessary to be specifically referred to being the two side rails 2, 2, and the guides 3, 3, for the main gripper chains 1, 4. These latter which carry the grippers 5, 5, run over sprocket-wheels 6, G, 6, 6, driven, through gearing, from the driving pulley 7, and need not be further described, as they form no part of my invention, nor the auxiliary grippers and their chains 8, which may or may not be used.

The carding rollers 9, 9, the detail construction of which is illustrated in Figs. 6 to 11, comprise a core of yielding material, instead of wood, as heretofore.

In Fig. 6, the core 12 consists of a resilient rubber or equivalent gelatinous composition, while in Fig. 7, the core 13 consists of successive layers of soft felt and in Fig. 8 of a coiled steel spring 15.

In each case, the spring or resilient core is mounted on a shaft 16 between a head 17, secured to the shaft, and a head 18, adjustable on the shaft by thenut 19, shown in Fig. 6, or by other suitable means. In this way, the resistance of the cores can be adjusted as required for the particular kind of tobacco to be stemmed. The cores are surrounded by the usual card cloth 20, beneath which may be a layer of canvas 21, as shown inFig. 8 in connection with the spring core.

Fig. 9 shows a roller provided with straight teeth 23, while Figs. 10 and 11 show rollers provided with bent teeth 24, either of which forms may be used.

The carding rollers in this machine are not mounted with their axes 1n vertical almoment, as has been the custom in prior ma chines, but with the axis of the upper roller in advance of the lower one, as shown in Figs. 1 and 14:. The object of this arrangement, which will be apparent from the latter figure, is to enable the combclearer 25, which here moves in a circular path instead of being carried in an oval path by chains, as heretofore, to pass closely adjacent to the upper comb 26 and to actually come in contact with the lower comb 27 and clear its teeth from tobacco adhering thereto. This necessitates a construction which will permit the arms 28, 28, carrying the combclearer, to yield. The comb-clearer is bent into the scraper form shown and may have its edge straight, or serrated to fit the teeth of the lower comb, as desired. Its supporting bar 28 has each of its outer ends bent a slot 35 formed in said head.

at right angles, each of said ends terminat ing in a piston-head 29, slidably carried in a socket 30, formed radially in ,atdisk 31, and containing a spring 33, which tends to force said head 29 outwardly, said movement being limited by a pin 34, passing transversely through said disk and through Said disks are mounted on a shaft 36, running transversely of the machine beneath the gripperchain guides 3, 3, and driven through sprocket chains 37 at each end, which chains are driven from another transverse shaft 38, which in turn is driven by a sprocket 7 chain 39, mounted on the shaft of the lower the comb-clearer, isv mounted "the rejector roll 40, driven from said shaft 38, through crossed chains '56 at each side of the machine, passing around idler sprockets 57 mounted on stub shafts suspended in brackets 59 from the side frames, see Fig. 1, and beneath said roll are the usual two conveyerstl and 42, for conveying away transversely the stemmed leaves and the unstemmed or broken-stemmed leaves, which have not passed through the carding rollers and which have fallen with their ends resting on the rejector roll 40. These parts being old, it is believed not to be necessary to describe them further in detail;

The drive for the carding rollers is taken from the shaft of the lower gripper chain sprocket 6 at the rear end of the machine,

through bevel gearing 54, shaft 53, bevel gearing '52, shaft 46, journaled in side frame 2, gear 48 on shaft 46, meshing wlth gear 47 mounted above it on shaft 45, gear 48 also similar gear 57 carried by a short shaft 55 journaled in the other side frame 2, andit in turn meshes with a similar gear mounted below it on a short shaft, which latter gear meshes with a similar gear on the other end of the shaft 16 of the lower roller.

The carding rollers are rotatably mounted at each side of the machine in the longer arms of the bell-crank levers-l3 and 44, which can swing around the shafts 46, 55, and 45, 56, respectively. It will be seen from the described connections that the carding rollers are constantly kept in rotation at the same speed but in opposite di rections, even when the bell-crank levers are.

swung to separate said rollers.

The means for periodically separating the carding rollers to permit the'grippers to pass consists of the followlng mechanism:

A chain 60, driven from a sprocket on the shaft of the upper gripper chain sprocket 6 at the rear end of the machine, drives a shaft 61, running transversely of the machine, and'carrying at each end a cam 62, each of which bears against a roll 63, which rolls are mounted on the short In the vposition shown inFig. 4:, the rollers are, of course, in the stemming position, they being prevented from approaching too closely by collars 67, see Fig. 5, carried on their shaft journals and normally resting on the tops of the guides 3; Obviously, the rollers are separated when the tooth 68 of each cam 62 comes into contact with rolls 63 and, owing to the shape of saidteeth, are lowered again into stemming {position gently and without shock.

Coming, now to the improved means for feeding theleaves into the machine, I employ a feed belt 70, see Figs. 1, 2 and 3,

running transversely to 'the gripper chains closely adjacent to their receiving end and driven at a slower speed than said chains from the shaft of the lower gripper sprocket 6,'through bevel gears, indicated at 71, and

- the belt gearing 73, 74c,and 7 As shown in Fig. 3, the belt is kept taut at its other end by weights 76 attached toshaft of the drum 77, which is carried inthe upper ends of levers 78. This arrangement and the specific drive described are, ofcourse,'n0t essential features of my invention.

The tobacco is placed on the end of'the belt near said drum 77 and is then spread out by the operator and pushedtransversely of the belt until the stems come in contact with a gage or flash-board 80, mountedadjacent and parallel to the inside edge of the belt. In this position it travels along until a quantity of the leaves come in alinement with the path of travel of the grippers. At this time a feeding arm 82, having preferably a flexible edge of rubber or the like,

comes around and advances said leaves into the path of a pair of the grippers, which simultaneously seize the stems, the ends of which have been alined up by the gage, and

draw the leaves into the machine. This feeding arm is earned by a shaft 83, driven pairs of grippers to seize hold of the stems see Fig. 17, occupying the place of said board and driven at the same speed as the feed belt 70. This will prevent any tendency to retard the stems by reason of friction between them and said board, whereby the leaves would be advanced faster than the stems and the latter would not be presented to the grippers at right angles to the same. .a

To prevent the leaves, after their stems have been seized by the grippers and while they are, of course, still on the moving feed belt, from catching in the gripper driving sprockets (S on the front side of the machine, as seen in Fig. 2, I provide a pivoted guard plate 90, normally lying closely adjacent to the inner side of said sprockets, see Figs. 12 and 13, the front edge of which guard is beveled off, as shown, so that it will be swung upwardly by contact with the grippers as the same come around and then return to position to prevent the leaves from. catching, by gravity which may be assisted by the spring 91. a

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all mat ter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the language used in the following claims is intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention, which, as a matter of langmige, might be said to fall therebetween.

I claim- 1. In a tobacco-stemming machine, the combination with carding rollers, grippers and means to carry them between said rollers, of means to separate said rollers for the passage of said grippers, said means comprising bell-crank levers, the longer arms of which carry the shafts of said rollers, the ends of the shorter arms of said levers being in contact with each other, a cam disk in contact with the end. of one of said shorter arms, a spring tending to keep said rollers in closely adjacent position, and means to drive said cam disk in timed relation with the movement of said grippers.

In a tobaccostemming machine, the com hination with carding rollers, grippers and means to carrythem betweensaid rollers, of means to separate said rollers for the passage of said grippers, said means comprising bellci-ank lovers, the longer arms of which carry the shafts of said rollers, the ends of the shorter arms of said levers being in contact with each other,a cam disk in contact with the on d of one of said shorter arms, a spring In a tobacco-stemming machine, the

combination with carding rollers, of means for constantly rotating them at uniform speed and for separating them periodically, comprising bell-crank levers carrying at the end of one of their arms the shafts of said rollers, gears on the ends of said shafts, a pair of intermeshing gears at each side of the machine, one of each pair of said gears meshing with one of the gears 011 the upper roller shaft and one of the other pair of gears meshing with one of the gears on the lower roller shaft, driving means for one of each pair of said intermeshing gears, rolls on the ends of the other arms of said levers, a cam disk bearing against one of each pair of said rolls, a spring tending to hold each set of rolls and disks in contact, and means to drive said disks.

4. In a tobacco-stemming machine, the combination with two carding rollers, means to drive the same and means to separate them at intervals, said driving means comprising a gear on one end of the shaft of each roller, a pair of intermeshing gears, one meshing with the gear on the shaft of one of said rollers and the other with the gear on the shaft of the other of said rollers, means for driving one of said intermeshing gears, similargears on the other end of the roller shafts and a similar pair of intermeshing gears on the other side of the machine and respectively in mesh with said roller shaft gears, and said lifting means comprising levers pivoted on the shafts of both pairs of said inter-meshing gears and carrying the shafts of the rollers in their longer arms, their shorter arms carrying rolls in contact with each other, a cam disk on each side of the machine in contact with one of each pair of said rollersand means to drive said disks.

In a tobacco-stemming machine, the combination with upper and lower carding rollers, and grippers for conveying the leaves therebetween of a comb associated with each of said rollers to remove the stemmed leaves from said rollers, and a yieldable combclearer adapted to clear each of said combs and mounted to revolve in'a path in close proximity to both of said combs.

6. In a tobacco-stemming machine, the

combination with upper and lower carding rollers and grippers for conveying the tobacco therebetween, the axis of the upper roller being in advance of that of the lower roller, means to periodically separate said rollers to permit the said grippers to pass,

grippers.

front of said'upper comb and clears the tobacco from between the teeth of said lower comb.

' In a tobacco-stemming machine, ,the combination with a pair of carding rollers, and grippers for conveying the leaves between them, of combs mounted adjacent to said rollers, a comb-clearer, arms carrying the same, a shaft located below the path of said grippers, disks on the ends ofsaid shaft having radial sockets therein, the ends of said arms being slidable within limits in said sockets and springs insa-id sockets below the ends of said arms. j

8. In a tobacco -.stemming machine, the combination with a pair of carding'rollers, the axis of the upper one being set in ad- Vance of the lower, means to drive said rollers, grippers and means to carryv them between said rollers, of bell-crank levers carrying the shafts of said rollers on the ends of one of their arms, means acting on the ends of the other arms of said levers to pcriodically separate said rollers to allow the grippers to pass betweenthem, combs in front of said rollers, a comb clearer yieldingly carried by a shaft located below the pathoftravel of the grippers, means to drive said shaft, and a rejector roll mounted close to the path of travel of'said combclearer.

9. In a tobacco-stemming machine, the combination with carding rollers and grippers to carry the tobacco betweenthe same, of a feed belt running at right angles to the path of said grippers adjacent to one, end of said path, means mounted above said belt to feed the leaves thereon into the path of said grippers, and means to drive said feeding means in timed relation with said 10. In a tobacco-stemming machine, the combination with cardmg rollers, grippers and endless chains carrying the same through the pass of said rollers, of an endless feed belt running transversely to said chains, and means adjacent to one, side of said belt to serve as a gage for the stems of the tobacco fed on said belt, means to feed the leaves transversely of said belt into thepath of said grippers, and means to drive said feeding means in timed relation wlth said grippers.

11.,In a tobacco -stemming machine, the

combination with carding rollers, grippers and endless chains carrying the samethrough the pass of said rollers, of an endless feed belt running transversely to said chains, said belt being slightly inclined toward said chains, means adjacent to the lower side of said belt to serve as a gage for the stems of the leaves and means to engage the leaves on said belt and feed them into position to be engaged by said grippers. a

12. In a tobacco-stemming machine, the combination with carding rollers, grippers and endless chains carrying the same through the pass of said rollers, of an endless feed belt running transversely to said chains, a vertically arranged belt running parallel to the inner side of said feed belt and at the same speed to serve as a gage for the stems of the leaves, and means to periodically ad tunes the leaves intothe path of said grip- .pers. V

13. In a tobacco stemming machine, the combination with carding rollers and grippers to carry the tobacco therebetween, of a transverse feed belt to convey the tobacco into alinement with the path of said grip pers, a shaft mounted above said belt parallel to said grippers and an arm carried by said shaft to engage the leaves on said belt and advance it into position to be seized by said grippers. I w

14. In a tobacco-stemming machine, the

combination with carding rollers and grippers to carry the tobacco between said roll-' ers, of a transverse feed belt to convey the its shaft and the toothed carding cloth, of

a coiled spring surrounding said shaft and sustaining said cloth, a head secured to said shaft against which one end ofsaid spring bears, another head movable on said shaft {and against which the other 'end of said spring bears and means to adjust the position of said movable head.

16In a tobacco-stemming machine, the combination with carding-rollers, grippers, their chains and sprocket wheels driving said chains, of a feed belt running transversely to said chains adjacent to the front pair of said sprocket wheels, a gage adjacent the inner edge of said belt to enable the stems to be brought in line, means to periodically engage the leaves lying on said belt and advance them into the path of said "grippers, and a guard adjacent to the inner face of the outer of said wheels to prevent the leaves from being carriedby said belt into engagementwith said wheel after'the stems have been engaged by the grippers. l7.- Ina tobacco-stemming machine, the

combination with carding rollers, grippers, their chains and sprocket wheels driving said chains, of a feed belt running transversely to said chains adjacent to the front pair of said sprocket wheels, means to periodically engage the leaves lying on said belt and advance them into the path of said grippers, and a guard adjacent to the inner face of the outer of said wheels to prevent the leaves from being carried by said belt into engagement with said wheel after the stems have been engaged by the grippers, said guard being pivoted to the frame of the machine and having an inclined front edge adapted to be engaged by the grippers so as to permit the latter to pass under said guard.

18. In a tobacco-stemming machine, the combination with a pair of carding rollers, means to periodically separate the same, combs to clear the tobacco therefrom, grippers to carry the tobacco therebetween, a comb-clearer to remove the tobacco from said combs, a transverse belt to deliver a number of leaves of tobacco to said grippers simultaneously, driving means and connections therefrom to the roller separating means, to the gripper carrying means, to the feed belt actuating means, and to the comb-clearer revolving means, such that said parts are all moved in timed relation to each other.

19. In a tobacco-stemming machine, an upper and a lower carding roller, the axis of the former being set somewhat in advance of that of the lower, combs in close proximity to the peripheries of said rollers, a wiper or comb-clearer, disks yieldably supporting said clearer so that it is revolved in close proximity to said combs but closer to the lower one than to the upper, pairs of grippers traveling successively between said rollers, means to separate said rollers to allow the grippers to pass, said clearer traveling over said combs immediately after the rollers return to stemming position, a rejector roll located in close proximity to the path of said clearer in its lower portion of travel, a feed belt, means to deliver the tobacco therefrom to said grippers, driving means and connections therefrom to all of said moving parts such that they all work in timed relation to each other to enable a maximum number of leaves to be stemmed.

20. In a tobacco stemming machine, the combination with carding rollers, grippers to convey the tobacco therebetween, endless chains carrying said grippers, and two pairs of sprocket wheels at each end of the machine to support and drive said chain, of a feed belt running transversely of the machine with its inner edge closely adjacent witnesses.

WILLIAM H. ALLEN. Witnesses I. R. "WARNER, S. J. HULIN.

(Ionics of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Gommissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G." 

